The Systemic Failures of Our Financial Future

JHK explains how the current financial problems around the world factor into his vision of The Long Emergency. Kunstler sees these systematic failures of finance as a threat to all of our fundamental economic arrangements, including our ability to live in an orderly society. The President, says JHK, has become “the bank’s bitch” in his continuation of the American campaign to sustain the unsustainable. Rather than more financial innovations based on the notion of getting something for nothing, Kunstler says we need to have an economy in which people invest in productive activities and are rewarded for the value that is created through those productive activities. Society is becoming poor and that’s a huge political problem. JHK foresees a very turbulent autumn, in both finance and politics.

“For those of you wanting a good overview of Kunstler’s thinking and for those of you that want to share JHK with others but may fear being embarrassed by the sometimes ‘salty’ language he can use, this book is a great tool. The format is, by design, conversational. You can digest it in small bites or in large pieces. And the Kunstler world through Duncan’s eyes is not necessarily sanitized, but it is communicated in a way that I think will reach a broader audience.”

“The 320-page New Society Publishers offering was just released in paperback and is based on four years of weekly Kunstler riffs recorded by podcasting journalist Duncan Crary. In his introduction to the book, Crary professes to be merely a host, and sometimes a Kunstler foil, but the two upstate New Yorkers really are kindred intellects.”